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[Olivier Tilloy <olivier.tilloy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/1843044 is a
downstream (Ubuntu) bug report describing how firefox crashes with a
FIPS-enabled kernel (and this is what prompted Victor to contribute this
patch).

Given the nature of the problem (a crash), it would be good to have the
patch in firefox as early as possible (but we can certainly cherry-pick
it and apply it as a distro-patch if it's not making it to firefox 74).

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1843044

Title:
  firefox crashes on a FIPS enabled machine

Status in Mozilla Firefox:
  Fix Released
Status in firefox package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  [IMPACT]
  firefox is not a FIPS certified library. firefox uses bundled nss and on a machine running FIPS enabled kernel, nss by default goes into FIPS mode if /proc/sys/crypto/fips_enabled=1. This is an untested configuration and since firefox with bundled nss is not a certified library we propose disabling reading the 'fips_enabled' flag and therefore switching the library automatically into FIPS mode. A FIPS customer reported firefox crash on a FIPS enabled system and strace showed it was repeatedly trying to read the fips_enabled flag from the bundled nss before crashing.

  The proposed patch disables reading the /proc/sys/crypto/fips_enabled
  flag. The users of the library however can force nss into FIPS mode
  via an environment variable. We plan to leave it as is so as not to
  regress existing users who may be using it.

  The issue impacts firefox versions in eoan, disco, bionic and xenial.

  lsb_release -rd
  Description:	Ubuntu Eoan Ermine (development branch)
  Release: 19.10

  Version: 2:3.45-1ubuntu1

  lsb_release -rd
  Description: Ubuntu Disco Dingo
  Release: 19.04

  Version: 2:3.42-1ubuntu2

  lsb_release -rd
  Description:	Ubuntu Bionic Beaver
  Release:	18.04

  Version: 2:3.35-2ubuntu2.3

  lsb_release -rd
  Description:	Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS
  Release:	16.04

  Version: 2:3.28.4-0ubuntu0.16.04

  [FIX]
  This fix proposes to disable bundled nss in firefox reading proc/sys/crypto/fips_enabled. We only want fips certified modules reading this file and running in fips mode. firefox is not one of our fips certified modules, so should not be reading this along with our fips certified modules to determine whether to run in fips mode.

  Users who do want to run the library in FIPS mode can do so by using
  the environment variable "NSS_FIPS". We propose to leave it as is so
  as not to regress anyone using this. The user who is using this option
  should be doing so with the awareness.

  [TEST]
  Tested on a xenial and bionic desktop ISO running FIPS enabled kernel and in FIPS mode. With the patch fix no crashes were observed when launching firefox browser.
  Without the patch fix, firefox crashes.

  Tested on a xenial and bionic desktop ISO running non-FIPS generic
  kernel. With the patch fix, firefox worked as expected and no changes
  were observed.

  [REGRESSION POTENTIAL]
  The regression potential for this is small. A FIPS kernel is required to
  create /proc/sys/crypto/fips_enabled and it is not available in the standard Ubuntu archive. For users forcing FIPS through environment variable, nothing has changed.

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